Visualizing Density

Just wanted to point out a great website, “Visualizing Density,” a product of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (LILP). I’m not feeling like my usual prolix self today, so I’ll let them do the talking:

Sprawl is bad. Density is good. Americans need to stop spreading out and live closer together. Well… that’s the theory, anyway. But, as anyone who has tried to build compact development recently will tell you, if there’s one thing Americans hate more than sprawl, it’s density… One reason people reject density is that they don’t know much about it-what it looks like, how to build it, or whether it’s something they can call home. We have very rational ways of measuring density, but our perception of it is anything but rational.

So to inject better thinking—and better perception—into the density discussion, LILP has created a truly awesome* collection of images of all types of densities, in many US regions and climates. Check out the gallery (update: free account req’d).

I do have one criticism, however. There’s virtually nothing from the Pacific Northwest. What gives, LILP?

All images in this post are copyrighted and used with permission. (Copyright: Alex S. MacLean, Landslides, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.)

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